A Wall on the Lesbian Continuum: Polysemy and Fried Green Tomatoes

Abstract

The film Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) uses a type of polysemy, strategic ambiguity, to transform a lesbian relationship from the novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe to a sexually ambiguous relationship. Through textual and audience analysis, I demonstrate that audience members are unlikely to interpret the relationship as a lesbian relationship unless they define lesbianism as identity as opposed to merely as sexual behavior. Although the film illustrates the power of woman-identified experience, it rejects an opportunity to illustrate fully Adrienne Rich's (1986) “lesbian continuum” by refusing to compare explicitly a heterosexual female friendship with a lesbian relationship.